Montpelier, Vermont - After a poetry-filled day at the Barre Opera House, Christian DeKett, of St. Johnsbury Academy, took top honors Wednesday at the Vermont Poetry Out Loud State finals. The Wheelock junior was one of 37 competitors representing schools from across the state. DeKett recited “I Am the People, the Mob” by Carl Sandburg and “Ultima Thule” by Linda Bierds for his first two selections, but it was the delivery of his third poem, “Experience” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, that clinched the title. Maia Gilmour, a junior at Brattleboro Union High School, was the runner-up in the competition.
DeKett will now advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C., on April 29–30. He will receive $200 in addition to the all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for himself and a chaperone. St. Johnsbury Academy will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. Gilmour will receive $100, plus $200 toward poetry books for Brattleboro Union High School.
Students from 53 high schools – champions from every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – will compete for a total of $50,000 in scholarship awards and school stipends at the National Finals. Judges will evaluate student performances on physical presence, articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. The National Champion will receive a $20,000 college scholarship.
“Over 4,000 Vermont high school students participated in the Poetry Out Loud program this year, so Christian’s accomplishment is truly exceptional,” said Executive Director Alex Aldrich. “More than just a contest in which the person with the best rote memory skills wins, Poetry Out Loud requires students to dig deep and explore not just the meaning and the context but also how to present the poem publicly. What was particularly exciting this year was our ability to show all 37 students’ recitations to schools throughout the state with our Livestream feed.”
The Poetry Out Loud program was created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, and is administered statewide by the Vermont Arts Council. Now in its eighth year in Vermont, Poetry Out Loud has inspired hundreds of thousands of high school students to discover and know by heart classic and contemporary poetry. Poetry Out Loud builds on the rising interest in poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music.
For more information, visit www.vermontartcouncil.org.
Since 1964, the Vermont Arts Council has been the state’s primary provider of funding, advocacy and information for the arts in Vermont. It strives to increase public awareness of the positive role artists and arts organizations play in communities and to increase opportunities for Vermonters to experience the arts in everyday life. The Council is the only designated State Arts Agency in the U.S. that is also an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization. For more information on the programs and services of the Vermont Arts Council, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org
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